ANGL 2132
ADVANCED COMPOSITION II
Winter 2012
Professor: Laurie Armstrong Cooper
Office:237B Beaux Arts (858-4596)
Office Hours: Mon. 1 :30 to 4 :30p.m.; Wed. 2 to 5 p.m. Also by appointment.
Email: laurie.cooper@umoncton.ca
“If I had more time, I would write less.”
--Cicero, politician and philosopher
This course will draw from and expand upon the knowledge and skills students acquired in 2131.
Relationships will be established among the reading, writing and grammar components of the
course, refining the students’ sense of intertextual relevance.
OBJECTIVES:
Reading:
Articles from Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum
(Eleventh Edition) will be analyzed and discussed for fullest possible
understanding.
Writing:
Students will practise synthesizing the texts by searching
for commonalities amongst the readings, pulling materials
together in essay form, and thereby creating new
knowledge.
Grammar:
Building on the basic skills review conducted in 2131,
students will look more closely at such concepts as
subordination and coordination to determine how they can
be used to strengthen a writer’s argument. Other
components, such as parallelism and punctuation, will also be addressed.
METHODS:
Class discussion, lectures, exercises, online exercises, peer support.
EVALUATION: Essay 1--Analysis based on Chap. 13 readings (3-4 pgs)
Essay 2--Compare/Contrast based on Chap. 11 (3-4 pgs)
Final Paper Argument/research Chap. 12 (8-10 pgs)
Participation—Online exercises, class preparedness
Mid-term Test (Grammar)
Final Exam
15%
15 %
20%
10%
15%
25%
REQUIRED TEXTS: 1)Behrens, Laurence, and Leonard Rosen. Writing and Reading Across
the Curriculum (Eleventh Edition). New York: Longman, 2011.
2)Hacker, Diana. A Canadian Writer’s Reference (Fourth or Fifth Edition),
Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.
--Unless otherwise instructed, assignments must be submitted in paper, not email, format.
Please Note: Your attention is drawn to all University regulations, but specifically Article 10,
sub-sections 10.9.1., 10.9.2, and 10.9.3, to which the Department adds the following details:
10.9.1 More than three unjustifiable absences will not be tolerated
10.9.2 Any test, oral presentation, or major assignment missed or delayed without prior approval
will be recorded as a failure. E.
The term “plagiarism” includes using uncredited sources or any uncredited work not the work of
the student.
Marking Scheme:A+=94-100%; A=90-93%; A-=88=89%; B+=84-87%; B=80-83%; B-=7879%; C+=74-77%; C=70-73; C-=68-69%; D+=64-67%; D=60-63%; E=0-59
This schedule is subject to change during the term.
Jan. 12 Introduction. Grammar Review clauses and phrases.
Jan. 17
Grammar: Sentence types concluded. Readings discussed: Chapter 13 introduction
(680-682); “The Power of Situations” (688-691); “Group Minds” (723-726).
Readings discussed: Asch experiment revisited (726-730); “The Perils of Obedience”
(692-704).
Jan. 19
Grammar. Reading discussed: “The Stanford Prison Experiment” (732-744).
Behrens Chapter 6: Analysis. Essay Topics discussed.
Jan. 24
Jan. 26
Jan. 31 Grammar.
Feb. 2 Grammar. Essay drafts reviewed.
Feb. 7
Feb. 9
Essay 1 Due at beginning of class. Grammar.
Readings: “New and Improved…”: Chapter 11; “Advertising`s Fifteen Basic…” (539);
“Making the Pitch” (558).
Feb. 14 Portfolio of TV and Print ads (564-609) discussed.
Feb. 16 Compare/Contrast synthesis discussed (Chap. 5). Grammar.
Feb. 21
Feb. 23
Grammar. Essay assignment further discussed.
Grammar. Essay outlines.
Feb. 28 Essay 2 due. Grammar Review.
March 1 Midterm.
Mar. 5-9 Study Week
March 13
Midterms returned and discussed. Readings discussed:
Chapter 12 introduced: Fairy Tales (614-645)
March 15 Readings: “The Rise of Perrault’s... (645-650); “Princess Paradox...” (666-669);
“Cinderella and Princess Culture” (670-673).
March 20
March 22
Bettleheim’s “ ‘Cinderella’ : A Story of Sibling Rivalry” (651-658).
Grammar. Final essay discussed.
March 27
March 29
Grammar
Grammar and research project outline.
April 3
April 5
April 10
April 12
Sentence style continued.
Writing workshop, including documentation.
Final paper due.
Review for exam
Essay 1: Analysis of Obedience to Authority
Value 15%
Due Date Feb. 7, 2012
Consulting three or four readings from Chapter 13 in Behrens, analyse a principle found
within one of these readings. For suggestions see “Synthesis Activities” pages 751-753.
Note that personal experience can be applied to an analytical essay. Consider activities 7,
9, and 10 in particular. A model analysis paper can be found on pages 188-191. For more
specific instructions on writing analysis, consult pages 192-201.
Essay 2: Compare/Contrast of Advertisements
Value: 15%
Due Date: Feb. 28, 2012
Based on the readings from Chapter 11, this essay asks students to prepare a
compare/contrast essay. For essay suggestions, consult the “Synthesis Activities” on
pages 609-612, most specifically entries 1 and 2. An outline will be particularly helpful in
this assignment. When creating your comparison/contrast outline, follow the examples on
pages 174 to 177. Organizing by Criteria (175) is the more effective form of organization
for this type of topic compared to the “organizing by source or subject” option (also
known as one-side-at-time). As always, the thesis is the most important consideration as
it indicates to the reader how the paper has been organized.
On page 175, note the paragraph that starts “However you organize your comparisonand-contrast synthesis…” Further on the “so what” question arises; “why bother to
compare and contrast in the first place?” (175). This is likely to be answered in a number
of ways. On page 565, the editors suggest the ads will get you thinking about why we buy
one product over another when there is little difference between the items being sold. As
well, they say that “each advertisement is a window into the culture” (565). What do
these ads say about our current culture? Our past? This includes gender, target audiences,
appeals and assumptions. The shift from ads that are heavily text-based to those that are
more visually appealing speaks of a cultural shift and the increasing need for advertisers
to grab our fleeting attention spans.
Final Paper : Research on Fairy Tales
Due Date: April 10, 2012
Value: 20%
Approaches to 2132 Final Paper
The final paper should be of 6 to 8 pages (excluding the bibliography).
While the inspiration for your essay should come from Chapter 12 in the Behrens text,
you are not restricted to a further exploration of Cinderella if you do not desire. You can
be quite creative with this paper in terms of your topic and how you choose to explore it.
Several of the articles in the section can be applied to folktales in general, so keep that in
mind (Thompson and some of Cullen’s points can be applied to numerous folktales.)
Some of you may want to seek out d’Aulnoy’s “Finette Cendron” :
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/aulnoy/1892/finettecendron.html
There is a helpful index of other fairy stories on the site`s home page:
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/sitemap.html
Just as the variants of “Cinderella” were fodder for compare/contrast, you can apply some
of the same thematic approaches to other work. Go through the comparative categories
offered on page 591 of Behrens. Analyzing texts based on levels of violence, relationship,
the function of magic, and the ending can an effective way to organize your paper. See
pages 674-679 for examples to get you thinking. Particularly, look at the following under
synthesis activies—1, 4, 5, and 11. Under research activities check out 2, 4, 5.
Remember that you don`t have to choose “Cinderella” as your folk tale. There are many
others from different languages and cultures—you can apply some the readings to this
where possible.
You can look at folklore and how it relates to film, videogames and other forms. Those of
you who are J.K. Rowling fans can analyze her book of Potterworld-based tales in her
short work Beedle the Bard.
You can also research through Scholar Google. Search by going to
www.scholar.google.com and then typing in key words. Some articles are available in
their entirety. Others might be available through the library.
Here are a couple of articles or book excerpts that I thought some of you might find
interesting/useful:
“On Fairy Stories” by J.R.R. Tolkien
Part of Jack Zipes book Breaking the Magic Spell Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy
Tales